A Firefighter's Other Passion: Changing The Skyline

By DENNIS HEVESI

Published: July 20, 2003

Correction Appended

ON a muggy July day nine years ago, Jim Kennelly and two fellow firefighters plunged five or six times each to the bottom of Coney Island Creek, their eyes clenched against the filthy water, to rescue five unconscious people tangled inside a wheels-up car 10 feet down on the creek bed.

''When I broke the surface to go under water, it was eerie, zero visibility, and I was handling heavy, seemingly lifeless, bodies,'' he told a reporter that day.

Three weeks ago, James P. Kennelly, real estate developer, held a party to celebrate the completion of the Sycamore -- a $35 million, 14-story, 80-apartment luxury condominium building with 10,000 square feet of commercial space at the corner of 30th Street and Second Avenue.

Mr. Kennelly wears two hats -- his long-back-rimmed fire helmet and the construction helmet donned by real estate developers while on site at a new project. There is no doubt which job provides the greater sense of accomplishment. ''Making a rescue is more satisfying than anything I've ever done,'' he said. ''It definitely outweighs standing on the corner and looking at my building.''

The day after that celebration for his new building, Firefighter Kennelly showed up, as scheduled, at the firehouse on East 67th Street and joined the guys from Ladder Company 16 and Engine Company 39 in ''committee work'' -- firefighters' parlance for the sweeping, mopping and buffing that goes on all around the house while their fire-retardant bunker gear stands ready, tucked inside their boots by the trucks. ''You'd never know Jim's anything but a fireman,'' said Firefighter David Simoes, one of 50 men on rotating shifts at the house. ''Jim's never shied away from committee work.''

Nor did he shy away six years ago when a painter clinging to a dangling scaffold under the Queensboro Bridge had to jump into his arms, or three years ago when he squeezed through a hot door into a ''fully involved'' apartment on 67th Street that was blocked by two smoke-collapsed victims crumpled behind it.

Many firefighters work second jobs -- perhaps roofing, landscaping or contracting. Firefighter Kennelly just takes it to the limit.

''You have to work 48 hours every eight days, but you can't work more than 24 hours in a row,'' he explained. ''So you make 'mutual exchanges' -- that's what it's called -- with fellow firefighters so you can have three days off in a row.''

That arrangement made it possible for Firefighter Kennelly to deal with a range of properties -- from a three-family home in Marine Park, Brooklyn, to a small co-op building in the Rockaways. But the demands of his from-the-ground-up development of the luxury condominium with a fully marbled lobby and expensively appointed apartments on Second Avenue required him to take a 20-month leave of absence.

So, at 41, single and about halfway toward his 20-year retirement date, Firefighter Kennelly is struggling with grander development aspirations and a $65,000-a-year job he loves.

It is a struggle that the city's fire commissioner, Nicholas Scoppetta, is fully aware of. ''We know firefighters are extraordinary people,'' Commissioner Scoppetta said. ''Dozens of them have earned law degrees while on the job. And, of course, many are skilled tradesmen. However, this is the first high-rise developer I've come across in the department.''

''I hope Firefighter Kennelly is back with us for good now, because he's been cited four times for bravery, and we'd like to keep him,'' the commissioner said. ''But he seems to have been so successful in his development business during his leave that we may have trouble hanging on to him.''

That inclination for business was readily apparent during Firefighter Kennelly's otherwise typical outer-borough upbringing -- baseball, stickball, Johnny on the pony with ''30, 40 kids roughly the same age as me and my brother and sisters'' on and around the block, he said. ''We had a one-family detached home on the nicest street in Brooklyn, Madison Place in Marine Park.'' His father, Donald, a retired history professor at St. Francis College, and his ''stay-at-home mom,'' Patricia, are still in the old house.

Sometimes, the young Mr. Kennelly disengaged from those neighborhood games. Early on, ''maybe by age 8,'' he had a nose for real estate. ''No kidding,'' he said, ''I wondered what could be built where, what you could put on a vacant lot, in stores.''

''When guys were putting stoops on the block, if there was cement work, I'd watch all day,'' he said. ''I'd run and get them sodas or coffee or sandwiches.'' And before he was 10, he had a list of eight neighbors who would pay him $5 to $15 to shovel their walks after a snowstorm, depending on the size of the lot.

At 14, Mr. Kennelly started working part-time for a landlord. ''His name was David Levine and he owned the building on our corner, a six-apartment walk-up. He let me do the grounds work, the painting, roof repairs. He'd show me how to do construction, from Sheetrock to framing studs. And he talked to me about real estate.''

Correction: August 10, 2003, Sunday An article on July 20 about a firefighter who is also a developer misstated the rent paid by a rent-controlled tenant whose presence was blocking a construction project. Peter Kavanagh, former tenant of the apartment involved, wrote to The Times and said the $170 figure cited by the developer, James Kennelly, was incorrect. Mr. Kavanagh said later in an interview that the rent was over $200. His landlord, Martin Wydra, said it had been $120.71. State records that would establish the correct figure were not available. The article also misstated the location of the one-bedroom apartment on Park Avenue that Mr. Kennelly bought for Mr. Kavanagh to persuade him to leave and make way for a condominium. It is at 36th Street, not 39th. And the article misstated the technical form of the transaction. Co-op ownership is transferred by sale of stock, not a deed.